The Duess Test
The Duess Test is a projective test for young children. It consists of ten short incomplete stories to which children must think of endings. The test was developed in Switzerland by L. Verlag Hans Huber Düss. The test Another useful method for closer examination of young children is the Duess Test, which has been worked out in Switzerland and used in France. It is indispensable for the correct understanding of some children. With its help one can some times unearth subtle psychological factors not brought out by other methods. The test consists in ten very brief fable-like stories. They are incomplete and after they are told to the child he is asked what the end of the story would be. In this way the child can complete the story in any way he likes. This test should be used in an elastic way. It should not be applied rigidly and should not be scored like a test. One can modify the original stories and can even add new ones to adapt them to the original case. I give the test in a way that is a mixture between telling a story, playing a game and asking a question. The Duess Test is often an interesting starting- point for further talks with a child. The Duess Test can be given only to young children, the upper age limit being about eleven. In suitable cases the child projects himself into the story and identifies his own situation with that in the fable. In this way typical emotional complexes may be elicited, but, as in other tests, one should be careful not to view the child as if he were an adult neurotic or read too much abnormality into him. Story examples FABLE 1 A father bird and a mother bird and their little baby bird are asleep in their nest on the branch of a tree. But there comes a big storm. It breaks the branch of the tree and the nest falls to the ground. The father bird flies quickly to one tree, the mother bird to another tree. What will the baby bird do? He knows how to fly a little. FABLE 2 A mother sheep and her little lamb are in a field. Every evening the mother sheep gives the little lamb good warm milk, which the little lamb likes very much. But it can already eat grass. One day the mother sheep has a new little lamb which is hungry for the mother to give him milk. But the mother sheep has not enough milk for both little lambs, so she says to the first lamb: "I haven't got enough milk for both of you, go and eat some fresh grass." FABLE 3 Somebody in the family has taken the train and has gone very far away and will never return home. See also * Bruno Klopfer * Projective test * Hermann Rorschach * Picture Arrangement Test * John E. Exner * Exner system of scoring * Rorschach inkblot test * Holtzman Inkblot Technique References Category:Freudian psychology Category:Psychometrics Category:Psychological tests Category:Psychology